Panel cover quick-acting latch



April 20, 1965 A. R. BLAIR 3,179,455

PANEL COVER QUICK-ACTING LATCH Filed Sept. 26, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1INVENTOR ARTHUR H. BLAIR I I 59 49 56 58 82.. k/gJ-MAW ATTORN Y5 April0, 1965 A. R. BLAIR 3,179,455

PANEL COVER QUICK-ACTING LATCH Filed Sept. 26, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5236 6/ FIG. 4 38 l 5 54 2 11 IM/\ /ZI\ W INVENTOR. V/ A ARTHUR R. BLAIRUnited States Patent Ofilice 3,179,455 Patented Apr. 20, 1965 3,179,455hANEL CUVER QUICK-ACTING LATCH Arthur R. Blair, 103 N. Wycolf,Bremerton, Wash. Filed Sept. 26, 1963, Ser. No. 311,924 6 flaims. ((Il.292-65) (Granted under Titie 35, US. Code (1952), sec.'266) Theinvention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for theGovernment of the United States of America for governmental purposeswithout the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

The present invention pertains to a means for removing and replacingaccess covers on watertight control panels and relates specially to aquick-acting latching mechanism which eifectuates a rapid removal orreplacement of such access covers.

The prior method of removing access covers of such equipment aswatertight control panels which house electrical apparatus requires thecomplete removal of a plurality of cap screws which hold the accesscover onto the given control panel. Gaining access to the housedapparatus for such purposes as troubleshooting is a tedioustime-consuming procedure. The problem is aggravated where there is anytime criticality involved. The reverse process of replacing such accesscovers is equally burdensome.

The present invention provides a positive-acting latching means which ismounted on such an access cover. A control panel to which such a coveris to be fitted is provided with perpendicular screws attached theretowhereby the latches on the cover engage said screws and exert a pullingforce on same. The instant latch utilizes a cam mechanism to providesuch a pulling force. The resultant of the pulling force is acompressing or sealing motion between the cover and panel. The desireddegree of sealing is adjustable by means of the screws mounted on thepanel. Once adjusted however no further screwing motion is necessary butmerely movement of a lever to the opened or locked position of the latchis sufilcient.

An object of the present invention is to provide a quickacting latchmeans for sealing a cover to an opening in a mating panel.

A further object is to provide a latch means which is easily removablewhen desired but not subject to loosening by vibration or the like.

A still further object is to provide a latch for sealing an access coverto a panel in a watertight relationship by a single rapid and easymotion.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this inventionwill be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood byreference to the following detailed description when considered inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a portion of a control panel and a watertight access covermounted thereon according to the present invention;

FIG. 2A is a perspective view of the quick-acting latching mechanism inthe open position;

FIG. 2B is a perspective view of the quick-acting latching mechanism inthe closed position;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the latching mechanism in theaccess-cover-open position;

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the latching mechanism in theaccess-cover-closed position; and

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the lifting arm 38.

The control panel 11 of FIG. 1 is representative of the watertightcontrol panels with which the present invention is concerned. The panelaccess cover 12, adapted to close the access hole 13 of the controlpanel 12, is held in closing position over access hole 13 by thecooperative action of the plural latching mechanisms 14 (which aremounted around the periphery of the access cover 12) acting in concertwith mated socket head screws 16, each of which is individual to one ofthe latching mechanisms 14 and each of which is appropriately screwedinto a mating threaded bore hole 17 in the control panel 11.

Looking now to FIGS. 3 and 4, when the access cover 12 is to be replacedinto watertight covering position over the access hole 13, theindividual latching mechanism 14 which is fixedly mounted to the panelaccess cover 12 will act to lift the socket head screw 16 (with which itis associated) upwardly to a position as shown in FIG. 4. This relativelifting action on socket head screw 16 brings the access cover 12 downinto closing position over the access hole 13. Between the access cover12 and that portion of the outer panel surface 13 with which it makescontact when in access-hole-closing position there will be a suitablegasket 19 of rubber or some other appropriate material, to effectuatethe required watertight sealing. Generally the gasket 19 is mounted onthe control panel surface 13 and mates with knife edges formed on theaccess cover 12.

All 'of the latching mechanisms 14 which are mounted on the access cover12 and the cooperating structure on the control panel 11 are the samefor each latching mechanism. Accordingly, further discussion of theinvention will be in terms of a given individual latching mechanism 14and its associated structure.

The latching mechanism 14 comprises a number of cooperating individualelements. 1 The base 22 of this latching mechanism 14 is mounted to theaccess cover 12by spot welding or by riveting or in some likeappropriate manner. Here inthe drawing it is shown secured to accesscover 12 by a pair of rivets 23 and 24 which pass through bore holes asand 27 ofthe base 22. Base 22 is formed with a pair of laterally-opposedupwardlyextending twinlugs 28 and 29, respectively, each of which isprovided with an internally-located slot 31, as shown, and each of whichhas laterally-extending edge portions 32, 33, and 34 shaped as shown.Mounted between lugs 28 arid29 for sliding movement along the respectiveslots 31 (of-lugs 28 and 29) is a spindle 36 which is provided at eachlongitudinal end with ahead 37. These respective heads 37, of a sizelarger than the adjacent slots 31 of lugs 28 and 29, contain thepossible .movement of the spindle 3-5 to sliding motion within the810131.

Carried by spindle'fi for free pivotal rotation thereabout is a liftingarm 38. Lifting arm 38,.in turn, has a pair of vertically-extendinglug-portions 39 and 41 which carry a spindle 42 which is freelyrotatable in the supporting lug-portions 39 and 11. Mounted forotherwise-free pivotal movement about the spindle 12 is a cam-bearingoperator-actuable lever arm i-3 which is formed at its head-end with acam portion 14. Lifting arm 38 is normally biased downwardly toward thehorizontallyextending portion of base 22 by the action of a flat springas which at its tail-end 51 is secured to the horizontally-extendingportion of base 22 and at its head-end 52 resiliently presses againstlifting arm 38 to bias it downwardly. In the drawing the tail-end ofthis fiat spring 45 extends under alip 53 formed in base 22 and, throughthe hole 27 formed therein, is secured to base 22 and to the accesscover 12 by the same rivet 24 whichalso acts to secure base 22 to theaccess cover 12. Thus, flat spring 46 is firmly anchored to bring itsresilient biasing action to bear against lifting arm 38. This springbiasing action results in a counter-clockwlse-directed moment upon thelifting arm 38.

Lifting arm 33 is cut away to form a channel 49, best seen in the planview of this lifting arm element set out in FIG. of the drawing. Thischannel 49 has an enlarged circular portion 56 at its right-hand end (asoriented in the various figures of the drawing) which is adapted toallow the head 57 of the socket-head screw 16 to pass freelytherethrough when the latching mechanism 14 is in the release positionfor permitting the access cover 12 to be removed from the control panel11. The socket-head screw 16 will likewise pass through this enlargedcircular portion 56 of channel 49 when the access cover 12 is replacedin covering position over its access hole 13 and before the access cover12 is tightened into place. FIG. 3 shows the socket-head screw 16, whichhas been screwed into the complementarily threaded hole 17 in thecontrol panel 11, after its head 57 has been passed through the enlargedportion 56 of channel 49 and before the latching mechanism 14 has beenactuated to bring the access cover into seated closed position over itsaccess hole 13.

A comparison of FIGS. 3 and 4 will portray the latching action (oflatching mechanism 14) which eifectuates the securing of the watertightaccess cover 12 to the control panel 11 to close off the given accesshole 13. FIG. 3 shows the latching mechanism 14 in the release positionand FIG. 4 shows it in the lock position (i.e., the position it has whenthe access cover 12 in its secured and tightened down position over thecontrol panel access hole 13). To shift the latching mechanism 14 fromits release to its lock position, cam-bearing lever arm 43 is turnedclockwise about its supporting spindle 42. As lever arm 43 rotatesclockwise about spindle 42, its cam portion 44 which rides on the base22 will shift its point of contact from point A (see FIG. 3) at thebeginning of the .locking pivotal movement of lever arm 43 to point B(seePIG. 4) at the termination of the locking pivotal movement of thelever arm 43. During this clockwise pivotal movement of lever arm 43 thespindle 42 will be carried rightwardly and upwardly as seen in FIGS. 3and 4. The cam-induced rightward-and-upward movement of spindle 42progressively carries lifting arm 38 to a new position as seen in FIG.4. This progressive movement of lifting arm 38 is characterized by acontinual raising of the left-hand end of lifting arm 38 and arightwardly directed movement of the entire lifting arm 38 as permittedby the sliding of spindle 36 rightwardly along the lug slots 31. Comparethe FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 showings which designate the relative positions.of lifting arm 38 at the beginning and end, respectively, of thisprogressive movement thereof. As lifting arm 33 proceeds ri-ghtwardly asseen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shank 58 of fixed socket-head screw 16relatively passes from the enlarged circular portion 56 of channel 49into the narrowed-down portion 59 of channel 49. With the crosswisedimension of channel portion 59 smaller than the same dimension of screwhead 57, as soon as screw shank 58 enters the narrow portion 59 oflifting arm channel 49, continued upward movement of lifting arm 38causes the lifting arm 38 to carry with it the head 57 of the screw 16and therefore causes this further upward movement of lifting arm 33 tolift the entire screw 16. Since this screw 16 is firmly anchored by itsthreaded bottom portion to control panel 11, this induced relativemovement of the base 22 (of latching mechanism 14) and socket-head screw16 results in bringing the access cover 12 (to which the latchingmechanism base 2-2 is fixedly attached) into closing position over thecontrol panel access hole 13. The described operator-initiated movementof lifting arm 33 readily overcomes theopposing biasing thrust exertedupon lifting arm 38 by flat spring 46.

In summary, after the access cover 12 is in place, lever arm 43 isbrought from its release position as seen in FIG. 3 to its closedposition as seen in FIG. 4. In the manner described above, this resultsin relative lifting of the screw 16 to tighten access cover 12 againstthe cover gasket 19 which is mounted to the face of control panel 11 soas to be located under the outer edges of access cover 12 when it is inclosing position over the access hole 13. Lever arm 43 is held in closedposition by the overcenter cam action described and by the detent actionexerted upon portion 61 of lever arm 43 by the abutting edge portions 34of respective base lugs 23 and 29. It will be noted that in the closedposition, edges 62 of lever arm 43 mate with the edge portions 32 ofbase lugs 28 and 29, and edges 63 of lever arm 43 similarly mate withthe respeetive complementarily-shaped edges 33 of the base lugs 28 and29. The detent action upon portion 61 of lever arm 43 by the respectiveedge portions 34 of base lugs 28 and 29 prevents opening of the accesscover 12 due to shock and/ or vibration loads. Tension on the gasket 19(by the secured access cover 12) can be adjusted by rotating the sockethead screw 16 using an Allen wrench inserted through the opening 66provided in lever arm 43. Lever arm 43 is provided with an appendage tab67 which permits easy grasping and manipulation of the lever arm by theoperator.

The present latching mechanism 14 allows (by easy shifting of lever arm43 from its closed to open position) rapid removal of the access cover12 in a matter of seconds. Replacement of the access cover 12 is equallyfacile and rapid.

It will be noted that access cover 12 is formed with a set of hand holds68 to permit the operator to grasp the access cover 12 for removal fromor replacement over the access hole 13.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention arepossible in the light of the above teaching. It is intended to cover allchanges and modifications of the embodiment set forth herein which donot constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for detachably securing first and second Ilaterally-extending plate members comprising;

bolt means projecting outwardly from said first plate member andprovided with a shank portion and an enlarged head portion;

said second plate member being formed with an opening adapted in size toclosely receive said bolt head whereby said members can be looselyengaged;

spaced flange members carried by said second plate member and providedeach with complimentary laterally-extending slots;

latching means;

said latching means comprising; 1

an elongated laterally-extending latch plate provided at one end of itsends with pin means slidably engaged in said spaced slots for providinga laterally-slidable pivotal axis for said latching means;

an actuating lever pivotally attached at the other end of said latchplate;

said lever having a flange extending between said other end of saidlatch plate and said second plate;

said flange having a cam-like surface engaging said second plate andshaped for lifting and simultaneously laterally moving said latch plateas said actuating lever is pivotally rotated about its axis;

said latch plate further being provided with a keyhole slot having itsenlarged portion remote from said other end of said latch plate;

said enlarged portion of said key-hole slot being adapted to receivesaid bolt head whereby said latch can be fitted onto said bolt;

said key-hole slot further having its smaller portion adapted to closelyreceive said bolt shank;

whereby said lifting and lateral movement of said latch plate moves saidsmaller key-hole portion into engagement with said bolt head forexerting a lifting force on said head and drawing said first and secondplate members into secure engagement.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further including:

a flat spring secured at one end to said second plate member and havingits other end contacting said 5 latch plate whereby said spring biasessaid latch plate towards its open position.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said lever is provided at its endopposite its pivot point with other flange means for mating with saidspaced flange members when said latch is in its closed position toprevent lateral movement of said latch means with respect to said firstand second plates. 1

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said first plate member is a controlpanel having an access opening and said second plate member is adetachable cover for covering said access opening.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said bolt means is threadably andadjustably engaged to said first plate member.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said actuating lever is providedwith a hole to provide access to said adjustable bolt.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,710,214 6/55Summers 292-113 2,860,904 11/58 Barry et al 292256 FOREIGN PATENTS657,284 9/51 Great Britain.

92,588 6/38 Sweden.

M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner. THOMAS J. HICKEY, Examiner.

1. APPARATUS FOR DETACHABLY SECURING FIRST AND SECONDLATERALLY-EXTENDING PLATE MEMBERS COMPRISING; BOLT MEANS PROJECTINGOUTWARDLY FROM SAID FIRST PLATE MEMBER AND PROVIDED WITH A SHANK PORTIONAND AN ENLARGED HEAD PORTION; SAID SECOND PLATE MEMBER BEING FORMED WITHAN OPENING ADAPTED IN SIZE TO CLOSELY RECEIVE SAID BOLT HEAD WHEREBYSAID MEMBERS CAN BE LOOSELY ENGAGED; SPACED FLANGE MEMBERS CARRIED BYSAID SECOND PLATE MEMBER AND PROVIDED EACH WITH COMPLIMENTARYLATERALLY-EXTENDING SLOTS; LATCHING MEANS; SAID LATCHING MEANSCOMPRISING; AN ELONGATED LATERALLY-EXTENDING LATCH PLATE PROVIDED AT ONEEND OF ITS ENDS WITH PIN MEANS SLIDABLY ENGAGED IN SAID SPACED SLOTS FORPROVIDING A LATERALLY-SLIDABLE PIVOTAL AXIS FOR SAID LATCHING MEANS; ANACTUATING LEVER PIVOTALLY ATTACHED AT THE OTHER END OF SAID LATCH PLATE;SAID LEVER HAVINGA FLANGE EXTENDING BETWEEN SAID OTHER END OF SAID LATCHPLATE AND SAID SECOND PLATE; SAID FLANGE HAVING A CAM-LIKE SURFACEENGAGING SAID SECOND PLATE AND SHAPED FOR LIFTING AND SIMULTANEOUSLYLATERALLY MOVING SAID LATCH PLATE AS SAID ACTUATING LEVER IS PIVOTALLYROTATED ABOUT ITS AXIS; SAID LATCH PLATE FURTHER BEING PROVIDED WITH AKEYHOLE SLOT HAVING ITS ENLARGED PORTION REMOTE FROM SAID OTHER END OFSAID LATCH PLATE SAID ENLARGED PORTION OF SAID KEY-HOLE SLOT BEINGADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID BOLT HEAD WHEREBY SAID LATCH CAN BE FITTED ONTOSAID BOLT; SAID KEY-HOLE SLOT FURTHER HAVING ITS SMALLER PORTION ADAPTEDTO CLOSELY RECEIVE SAID BOLT SHANK; WHEREBY SAID LIFTING AND LATERALMOVEMENT OF SAID LATCHING PLATE MOVES SAID SMALLER KEY-HOLE PORTION INTOENGAGEMENT WITH SAID BOLT HEAD FOR EXERTING A LIFTING FORCE ON SAID HEADAND DRAWING SAID FIRST AND SECOND PLATE MEMBERS INTO SECURED ENGAGEMENT.